Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-07-12
Loss OF The YACHT MYSTERY.
The Dead Number Not Les Than twenty
Ssven-DetaiI- of the Disaster


seven-D=iaiI- of the Disaster.
NV YORK. July Pit Is known that not
less than tweut y-se.ven persons were drowned
Sunday evening los the capsizing Of the
yacht Mystery in squat Of Barren
Island. The party which met with the
terrible disaster had gone down on
two yachts, tie Christina and the Mys
terry They were mostly Germans residing in
Brooklyn and Long Island On preparing tn
return from Rufle Bar, an island in Canar-
sic bay, number Of men showed evidence
that they had been drinking, and the skip
Ters thought il hest m put the women and
children aboard the NJ ystery which Is n cabin
yacht, forty feet long and rates Is a much
safer boat than her consort The women pro
tested Their protest was unheesit-d The
Mystery and its precious load swung off
from the Rhffie Bar pier at o'clock
The Christina, as could he easily seen.
was about swinging out in the Myztery's
wake Cap. Heudl1cFsnn, Of the Mystery,
said in tie hearing Of some Of the women
who we're rescued that he yeas going 10 get
70 Carnnr,sie first " blow stick ont Mrs
SwItn.r Of Gfean fn,ut, made most earnest
protest against more sail, as tii. ioaf vas al
ready heeliug in II way that frightened the
women utmost into mysteries Capt Hem
erickson declared that he could sail the Mys
terry through gale and persist7i ~ ms or
der for more sail Thu reef kuois wpre I'M
fastened and the boom dropped inst as a
squall Of considerable violence struck the
sail Ia a second She was on beam -euds and
all the people were struggling i'll the choppy
~ea The catastrophe was witnessed from
tile tug T. Dean which vas then twouiiles
away.
For five minutes the Yacht remained on her
beam ends aud the SlfDuis and bulwarks af-
forded sitne hold for the eugulfed people
The struggle fnr place. by which 10 hold op
was awful Fully half II the drowning PEG
IIe were children Tie. mothers made fran
lie efforts Ia get THEN little ones TO where
they could hotd or 10 something One after
another they were swept off in the tldeway
and buovej by their clothing. their hands
waved in frantic ant una vailing apD.als for
help Some time before the Dean got near
enough TO lie Of US. negro put out from
Barren Island III Towhnat and was the first
10 aid the drowning people. Altogether seven
Of the lives saved ure 10 le credited solely to
lis efforts
When the Dean arrived there were few of
the victims still above the surface As she
neared n woman floating trying to buoy up her
year-old child, man on the guard suddenly
exclaimed: My God that is nv wifer' and
Owed TO her aid. The woman had already
lost her grip on the child and was about sink
lug when he reached her He had the choice
of saving her or his child, and he choose his
wife He and she were soon drawn aboard
the Dean. but the child sank be
fore their eyes The next grappled
was a woman of middle age, who had beer
kept on the surface by her stoutness- She,
however was so exhausted that she died a few
minutes after she was brought aboard the
tug. A child and another woman also dice
after they were taken out, but the Dean,
passengers and crew succeeding in rescuine
five alive
As yet it is impossible to get a list of th'
passengers board the yacht, and corlse
quentIy the exact number of fatalities is un
obtaiDdble.